“So near, and yet so far away. . .” For half a century, Cuba was the mystery island for American birders and nature lovers. The island held an alluring charm enhanced by its inaccessibility. With the easing of travel restrictions in the past few years, travel to Cuba has become possible. Join two travelers as they guide you through the former terra vetita, where mule-drawn carts are common and tour buses are about the only vehicles on the roadways. We will visit the larger nature preserves for birds, visiting coastal mangrove, scrub land, savanna and swampland habitats. You’ll learn a little about the landscape, meet native wildlife and the endemics like the Cuban pygmy owl, the trogon, and the bee hummingbird. Your presenters will be Pat Bartlett and Rob Norton who combined forces to bring you this presentation.
Social time 6:30 – 7:00
Peregrine Falcons migrate down the Atlantic Coast in fall, usually peaking in early October.
Meet trip leader John Hintermister at the Tag Agency and carpool to the hawk-watching platform at the north end of the park in hopes of seeing Peregrines. During the second half of the morning we’ll walk a woodland trail in search of fall warblers, tanagers, grosbeaks, and thrushes. Entry fee $3 per vehicle. Bring water and bug repellent. Lunch is at Cap’s on the Inland Waterway.
Difficulty: 2 (may involve uneven terrain one to two miles).
Web sites for GTM NERR: http://www.gtmnerr.org and http://www.dep.state.fl.us/coastal/sites/gtm/
Meet trip leader Trina Anderson in the parking lot at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens for a stroll through a beautiful 62-acre park marked by gorgeous gardens (including butterfly and hummingbird gardens), sinkholes, a man-made watercourse, and hardwood hammocks that host a wide variety of bird life. Participants will be admitted to the park for half price ($4), but MUST be on time to get the group rate.
Difficulty: 2 (may involve uneven terrain one to two miles).
Meet Rex Rowan in the Target parking lot and carpool to Cedar Key, a quintessential Florida birding destination where birders can often view shorebirds over one shoulder and songbirds over the other. Participants may want to stay in Cedar Key for lunch.
Difficulty: 1 (trip within easy access to vehicle and/or level terrain one mile or less).
Audubon EagleWatch is seeking volunteers to monitor Bald Eagle nests for the 2017-2018 breeding season. EagleWatch provides valuable information on nesting activity and the current trends of the Bald Eagle population in Florida. As a volunteer, you’ll be assigned to monitor one or more eagle nests in your vicinity. The data you collect helps eagle biologists determine the right conservation measures to ensure the success of the species in our state.
Go to this web site to register.
Meet trip leader Howard Adams at the trailhead of La Chua Trail on Camp Ranch Rd. La Chua is one of the area’s best birding hotspots and it supports a tremendous bird population including wading birds, waterfowl, raptors, warblers, and others. Resident species should be in the midst of nesting activities, and we may see a few migrants passing through. Entry fee for the State Park is $4 per vehicle.
Difficulty: 3 (may involve elevation change, uneven terrain, and/or walking distances greater than two miles).
Dragonflies and Damselflies are fascinating and conspicuous
components of our insect fauna. There are 169 species recorded
from Florida and 116 species have been found in Alachua County.
This program will cover basic biological facts about the group,
including anatomy, life cycle, reproduction, behavior, habitats, and
feeding. The non-technical discussion will be illustrated with
photographs of many local species. Presented by Dr. Franklin
Snelson, Jr.
Thursday, December 7, 2017 Millhopper Library, 3145 NW 43rd St., Gainesville.
6:30 social time, 7:00 program begins
Instead of the Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive (still closed due to continued flooding from Hurricane Irma), we’ll be birding the West Trail of the Newnans Lake State Forest, specifically the weedy sparrow field at the north end of the property. Recent trips have discovered remarkably large numbers of sparrows, up to nine species so far: Chipping, Field, Vesper, Savannah, Grasshopper, Song, Swamp, White-throated, and White-crowned. You can be sure that there are more to be found. If you want some practice with sparrows, this is the trip for you.
Directions: Drive east on University Avenue past Morningside Nature Center. About a mile past Morningside, State Road 26 curves left (while University continues straight to the shore of Newnans Lake). Stay on 26 for another mile and you’ll see the Newnans Lake State Forest sign on your LEFT. Make a left turn into the driveway and follow it to the parking corral. (There’s also a sign and a parking corral for the Pithlachocco Trailhead on the RIGHT side of the road. Don’t go there.) The official address is 1404 NE 55th Blvd, Gainesville, FL 32641, but check the map for the accurate location.
Trip Difficulty: 2 (We’ll walk a forest trail and grassy service road about a third of a mile to the field, then just amble around in the weeds looking for birds. Total walking distance for the day will probably be around a mile and a half or two miles).
Join Audubon traveler Erika Simons as she shares her adventures on a small ship cruise of the Southwest Alaska Inside Passage. The small ship not only allowed her to make new friends with her fellow travelers but also made daily off-boat activities possible. Passengers were offered kayaking, paddle boarding, beach meanders, bushwhacking, and photography. Wildlife viewing was often enhanced during these activities. Erika will share her photography of this adventure.
Location is the Millhopper Public Library, 3145 NW 43rd St, Gainesville, FL 32606, USA
Social time 6:30 p.m. Program 7:00 p.m.
Meet trip leader Felicia Lee at the trailhead of La Chua Trail on Camp Ranch Rd. La Chua is one of the area’s best birding hotspots and it supports a tremendous bird population including wading birds, waterfowl, raptors, warblers, and others.
Entry fee for the State Park is $4 per vehicle.
Difficulty: 3 (may involve elevation change, uneven terrain, and/or walking distances greater than two miles).
Meet trip leader John Hintermister at the Tag Agency on NW 34th St. just south of US-441 to carpool to the east coast. We’ll start at Fernandina Beach and work our way south. Possible Purple Sandpipers and scoters at Ft. Clinch State Park (entry fee $6 per vehicle). Then to Amelia Island for Red-throated Loon, scoters, Horned Grebes, and gulls. We’ll finish at Jacksonville’s Huguenot Park ($5 per vehicle) for shorebirds and other winter birds. Expect a full day of birding and some walking at various coastal sites.
Bring a lunch and warm clothes.
Difficulty: 3 (may involve elevation change, uneven terrain, and/or walking distances greater than two miles).
Meet trip leader Howard Adams at the trailhead of La Chua Trail on Camp Ranch Rd. La Chua is one of the area’s best birding hotspots and it supports a tremendous bird population including wading birds, waterfowl, raptors, warblers, and others. Resident species should be in the midst of nesting activities, and we may see a few migrants passing through.
Entry fee for the State Park is $4 per vehicle.
Difficulty: 3 (may involve elevation change, uneven terrain, and/or walking distances greater than two miles).
Come join us on Wednesday, April 11th at 6:30 pm for Alachua Audubon’s annual pot luck dinner celebration and help us welcome our newest AAS Board Members.
This event will be held at Bubba and Ingrid Scales’ house at 3002 SW 1st Way, Gainesville, located in the neighborhood across Williston Road from Sweetwater Wetlands Park (see map). Look for the AAS signs!
Bring some food to share and a beverage of choice, and enjoy visiting with Alachua Audubon members and the Board of Directors. This will be a fun gathering and an opportunity to share our more recent spring migration observations!
The Alachua Audubon Society is a volunteer organization. Officers of Alachua Audubon Board of Directors are: President: Debbie Segal, Vice President: Scott Flamand, Secretary, Felicia Lee, and Treasurer: Trina Anderson. Returning board members are Emily Schwartz, Bob Simons, Anne Casella, Mike Manetz, Barbara Shea, Karen Brown, Katie Sieving, Charlene Leonard, Adam Zions, Steve Goodman, Michael Brock and Alan Shapiro.
We would like to welcome our newest board members Jonathan Varol, Cindy Boyd, Eric Amundson and Brittany Kryder. We would also like to thank the outgoing Board members Sharon Kuchinski and Will Sexton for their time and effort in make this a successful organization.
Please join us on April 11th as we celebrate Alachua Audubon and welcome our newest board members.
Meet trip leader Rex Rowan at the Tag Agency on NW 34th St. just south of US-441 to carpool to Jacksonville’s Huguenot Park, where we’ll look for shorebirds, gulls, and terns, all in their breeding plumage, and migrant songbirds, including Painted Buntings, at Ft. George Island. Admission to Huguenot is $5 per vehicle, $3 (exact change only) if we get there before 8 a.m.
Difficulty: 3 (may involve elevation change, uneven terrain, and/or walking distances greater than two miles).
Florida’s Charismatic Microfauna
Presented by Paul Moler
Social Time 6:30, program 7:00 p.m.
Although the vast majority of Florida’s wildlife species are invertebrates, most receive little attention. The important roles played by bees and butterflies are generally well known, but many other species toil away anonymously providing important ecosystem functions. Still others may not be major players but are nonetheless behaviorally or morphologically fascinating (“cool”). This program will introduce a select few of the less familiar members of our local fauna.
Scott Flamand, retired science teacher from Buchholz High School and former president, current vice president of Alachua Audubon Society will tell about a recent trip with a nature guide through northern India. Scott was very excited to be able to take this trip and we will find this an outstanding presentation about what he saw and learned in northern India.
Social Time 6:30, program 7:00 p.m.
Meet trip leader Rex Rowan at the parking lot of the Watermelon Pond WEA on SW 250th Street 2.0 miles south of SW 46th Avenue. We’ll be looking for open-country migrants like Western Kingbirds as well as winter arrivals like Savannah and Vesper Sparrows (and the season’s first Yellow-rumped Warblers!). Fall wildflowers ought to be blooming, and hopefully we’ll encounter a Fox Squirrel or two.
Difficulty: 3 (may involve elevation change, uneven terrain, and/or walking distances greater than two miles).
Ginny Stibolt, a life-long gardener with a Master of Science degree in botany, will speak on topics from the book, Climate-Wise Landscaping: Practical Actions for a Sustainable Future by Sue Reed and herself. The book was published by New Society Press in 2018. The authors have taken an optimistic approach, with hundreds of actions that people can take to accomplish at least one of 3 objectives: 1) to help the landscape survive climate change, 2) to help wildlife survive climate change, and 3) to help mitigate climate change. Since moving to Florida in 2004, Ginny has written 4 peer-reviewed books on Florida gardening, all published by University Press of Florida. In addition, she has written hundreds of gardening and nature articles for various publications.
Social Time 6:30, program 7:00 p.m.
Meet trip leader Rex Rowan in the parking corral for the West Trail, on State Road 26 one mile north of the junction with County Road 329B. The 182-acre field on this property produced 13 species of sparrows last winter, including Henslow’s, Lincoln’s, and Clay-colored, and we’ll see how many of them we can find. Interesting western strays are also possible at this time of year.
Difficulty: 2 (may involve uneven terrain and/or walking distances one to two miles).